It will be difficult to pull off a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in the coming Parliament sitting, which starts next Monday, said PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli.

Therefore, the Pandan lawmaker said the public needs to "re-calibrate their expectations" and not blame the opposition if it does not materialise.

"My fear is that we have to re-calibrate the public's expectations, because I don’t think the public understands the standing order," he told reporters at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

Rafizi explained that the process of a motion to table a vote of no-confidence in this country would have to go through the speaker, who would then refer it to the prime minister.

He noted that a vote of no-confidence which the public is used to in other countries is "near impossible" in Malaysia and so they have to be realistic in their expectations.

"My worry is that if the public doesn't understand the rules of Parliament, they might say that the opposition has lied to them," he said.

However, this does not mean the opposition will still not try to force Najib to step down, Rafizi said.

"My opinion is that this has always been our attitude as activists.

"Something that is difficult but is right, you still have to push but then you have to be realistic of the outcome," he said.

Another possible way is for the opposition to defeat a bill tabled by Najib, he added, because it can be taken to mean that the prime minister has lost the confidence of the majority.

Being realistic

The next major bill will be the Budget 2016, he pointed out, and Najib will be expecting the opposition to try its best to defeat that bill.

"He will try his best to make sure that every single BN MP will be there so I think there will be a heightened sense of intimidation from BN," he said.

The opposition will try any method to take Najib down , said Rafizi.

"Whether it is through defeating a bill, whether it is through filing a motion of no-confidence, we will do it […] but we are not in control.

"The one in control is Najib and the speaker so therefore we have to be a little realistic about it," he noted.

The opposition has been talking about tabling a motion of no-confidence vote for months now, though it has been a lot more coy about whether it will actually do it.